Tag Archives: Chablais

Still, there have been no serious attacks on Chris Froome, and his helpers in Sky. His former, faithful helper Richie Porte was the only one to attack. Chris Froome followed, and Nairo Quintana and Bauke Mollema lost another half minute when they were left behind. It seems that only an accident can prevent Chris Froome from winning this year.

We are back in France, for a 17 km uphill time trial. This is not common in Tour de France, it is the first since 2004. They have had this type of stages more frequently in Giro d’Italia. I have looked at the results from stage 15. in this year’s Giro d’Italia, to have something to compare with. This was a 10 km uphill time trial. The time differences between the first ten riders was a bit more than a minute. As today’s stage is longer, I will expect the time differences to be about twice a much. There is a lot to win and even more to loose on this stage for anyone with some kind of ambitions in the general classifications. Some will go for a stage win. I am for instance thinking of Tom Dumoulin. But for the rest of the riders, it is a question of getting through within the time limit, without using too much energy. As an example, Peter Sagan is about 2 hours and 28 minutes behind Chris Froome in the genereal classification. He is collecting points, and the time does not matter. If he should loose some more minutes, who cares?